PHOSPHATE COMPANY LIMITED Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The short ground raised by the writ petitioner appellant is that a subsidy that was available to the appellant for marketing a fertilizer that goes by the name of single super phosphate or SSP was declined on the ground that the subsidy had been "postponed" though no notice of any postponement or suspension was issued to the appellant or the manufacturer from whom the appellant obtained the product.

(2.) The facts are not much in dispute. There was a subsidy scheme in place under which, inter alia, manufacturers and marketers of SSP would obtain a freight subsidy of Rs.616/- per metric tonne when the goods were transported on the railways. Indeed, such subsidy was applicable only to manufacturers. However, upon some of the manufacturers moving the Central Government for extension of the benefit to marketers of such product, by a letter dated November 26, 2008 permission was accorded accordingly. The appellant herein usually procured its SSP from Dharamsi Morarji Chemicals Company Limited of Mumbai which has its manufacturing facility in Rajasthan.

(3.) The letter of November 26, 2008 was addressed by an Under-Secretary to the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers specifying that the "benefits under Concession Scheme in respect of the marketing arrangement approved through this letter shall be available to the marketer" after complying with certain conditions indicated in a document appended to such letter. The benefit is indicated in the previous letter of the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers dated July 17, 2008 which specifies the freight subsidy on SSP at Rs.616/- per metric tonne with effect from October 1, 2008.